Recommendations you can check.
Environmental journalist and author; long-time contributor to New Scientist and author of When the Rivers Run Dry and The Land Grabbers.
6 things
HiroshimaBook John Hersey
Well, I'm a journalist and for me this is one of the great works of journalism. I'm not alone in saying this; many others have called it the best piece of journalism in the twentieth century.
Five Books interview on landmark environmental books
2026-04-14·fivebooks.com ↗
Small is Beautiful: Economics As If People MatteredBook E. F. Schumacher
Yes, Small is Beautiful was important for me as a lefty-political, as you'd say, in the early 1970s at university. It was one of the first books to suggest to me that there was another way.
Five Books interview on landmark environmental books
2026-04-14·fivebooks.com ↗
Adventures in the Anthropocene: Journeys to the Heart of the Planet we MadeBook Gaia Vince
I like Adventures in the Anthropocene because it is just that. She has a series of chapters on grasslands, mountains, oceans, coastlines, climate—the standard repertoire of environmental issues on a global scale
Five Books interview on landmark environmental books
2026-04-14·fivebooks.com ↗
The Population BombBook Paul Ehrlich
modern environmental thinking—for me—probably starts with, yes, Rachel Carson, but also Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, which I remember being very stimulated by in the late 1960s, early 1970s.
Five Books interview on landmark environmental books
2026-04-14·fivebooks.com ↗
Gaia: A New Look at Life on EarthBook James Lovelock
It's been a hugely influential idea, certainly for me, but I think also more widely for the environmental science movement.
Five Books interview on landmark environmental books
2026-04-14·fivebooks.com ↗
Road to SurvivalBook William Vogt
So we need the pessimists, although some of them—Vogt in particular—I think of as a malign influence, because of the political thinking that went behind what he was saying.
Five Books interview on landmark environmental books
2026-04-14·fivebooks.com ↗
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